Turning 18 before Jan 1? Enrol yourself as a voter

The ECI is undertaking a special drive for the enrolment of young people who will attain the age of 18 by January 1, 2015. About 10 lakh newly-eligible voters are expected to enrol themselves during the drive.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is undertaking a special drive for the enrolment of young people who will attain the age of 18 by January 1, 2015. About 10 lakh newly-eligible voters are expected to enrol themselves during the drive.

About 17 lakh young men and women turn 18 every year in the country. The drive, which will start on December 1 and conclude on December 16, will also enrol 18lakh voters who turned 18 in the past two years, but have still not enrolled themselves as voters. The final rolls will be published on January 21 next year.

For the drive, 55,000 centres will be set up across the state, in venues such as schools and halls where voting usually takes place during Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Sources say the response is expected to be low, as most eligible young voters enrolled themselves ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections held earlier this year.

Cleaning up the rolls is also on the cards for the ECI. “We have 8.33 crore voters on the rolls. This number is too big, with respect to the voter to population ratio. According to the ratio, the number of eligible voters should be about 68% of the population, that is 8.03 crore. This means about 30 lakh voters have either been repeated or have died. The summary revision drive will add a million more to the rolls,” said an official from the EC.

Officials, however, clarified it is not a priority to clean up the rolls right away. “We are planning to start a clean-up drive next year. There are a sizeable number of voters in the absent, shifted or died (ASD) category, which need to be deleted,” said Nitin Gadre, chief electoral officer of the state.

Details about the drive

>First-time voters should take two documents proving their identity and place of residence, and fill up form 6

>55,000 enrolment centres will be set up for the drive, at the polling stations of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections

>For more details, call 1800-22-1950.

>About 10 lakh newly-eligible voters are expected to enrol themselves during the drive

>The drive will start on December 1 and conclude on December 16

>During the drive, the ECI will also enrol 18lakh voters who turned 18 in the past two years, but did not enrol themselves.